Ben Bliss in Recital

From: Prairie Village, Kansas. LA Opera: Benvolio in Roméo et Juliette (2011, debut) with numerous subsequent appearances including Tamino in The Magic Flute (2016) and as a soloist in St. Matthew Passion (2022). He was a member of the Domingo-Colburn-Stein Young Artist Program (2011-13). 

Hailed as a “truly exceptional tenor” by the National Review, Ben Bliss is quickly establishing himself as one of the most exciting performers on today’s operatic stage, both in his native America and internationally. He has been cited as “an exemplar of the Mozartean tenor” for his “purity of tone, vocal control and artistic sensitivity” (Opera Warhorses).

His 2024/25 season includes two roles at the Metropolitan Opera—a debut as Eric in Jeanine Tesori's new opera Grounded and Tamino in The Magic Flute—as well as a return to the Opéra National de Paris as Tom Rakewell in The Rake's Progress and house debuts as Jupiter in Handel's Semele with both the Royal Opera House in London and the Théâtre des Champs Elysées in Paris. Concert engagements include performances with the Metropolitan Opera and Yannick Nézet-Séguin at Carnegie Hall, as well as with the Chamber Music Society Lincoln Center.

Highlights of the 2023/24 season include house debuts at the Opéra National de Paris as Don Ottavio in Don Giovanni and at the Vienna State Opera as Ferrando in Così fan tutte. He also had a role debut as Roméo in Roméo et Juliette with the Lyric Opera of Kansas City, performed as Tamino and as Pélléas in Pélléas et Mélisande with the Bayerische Staatsoper, and returned to the Canadian Opera Company as Don Ottavio. Outside of the opera house, he performed Beethoven’s 9th Symphony with San Francisco Symphony and Michael Tilson-Thomas, and a recital with soprano Louise Adler at Wigmore Hall in London.

Learn more at BenBlissTenor.com.

Canadian pianist and vocal coach Bryan Wagorn regularly performs throughout North America, Europe, and Asia as soloist, chamber musician, and recital accompanist to the world's leading singers and instrumentalists.

Bryan has appeared on major television and radio stations including Good Morning America, WQXR and CBC Radio, and has performed in recital for the George London Foundation, the Marilyn Horne Foundation and Richard Tucker Foundation.

A participant at the Marlboro Music Festival, and music staff at the Glyndebourne Festival, Mr. Wagorn has also been engaged as staff coach at the Ravinia Steans Music Institute, and served on the faculty of the National Arts Centre Orchestra’s Summer Music Institute and Carnegie Hall's National Youth Orchestra. He has been a guest coach at the Royal Academy of Music in London, the Metropolitan Opera's Lindemann Young Artist Program and at the Glyndebourne Festival’s Jerwood Young Artist Program. He made his solo recital debut at New York's Carnegie Hall in 2009, and has performed two extensive tours with Jeunesses Musicales de Canada, and performed chamber music with members of the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra, the New York Philharmonic, the Philadelphia Orchestra, and the Chicago Symphony. Mr. Wagorn is also on the advisory board of the Hildegard Behrens Foundation and the Time In Children's Arts Initiative.

Mr. Wagorn holds degrees in piano performance from the Royal Conservatory of Music in Canada, the University of Ottawa, the Mannes College of Music, and a Doctor of Musical Arts degree from the Manhattan School of Music. He is a graduate of the Metropolitan Opera Lindemann Young Artist Development Program, and serves on the faculty of Mannes College of Music.